The night was restless. All I can remember was a light. A light I believed was in my dream. However, something about it seemed different. It was calling to me. No, it was pulling me in, but it wasn't really pulling. But why?  I couldn't help my curiosity I guess. I walked towards it. My body trembled slightly in not only fear, but excitement as well. I extended my arms to touch it, reach out to it, but by the time I had actually gotten to the light, I filled the whole room, blinding me. I woke up. Well, at least I thought I woke up. What around me was not my room. What I was sitting up on, was not my bed. From my perspective it was a stone slab. The building, if it even was a building, was not my house, or anything I recognized. It was cold. It seemed darker than anything else, yet I still managed to see what was around me. I was convinced I was still asleep.
I slowly moved, and the movements felt real, however the gravity seemed stronger, yet it didn’t seem to be pulling at my pants or shirt, just my body. Standing up was harder than it should have been, dragging me to the ground at every chance it had.
  The room, it wasn't even a room. There was a roof, but it had no walls. Whatever was going on was different. It seemed real, but it had an unfamiliar surrounding.  Dreams can do that, right? I just had to come to the conclusion that they could. I managed to stand on both feet. I was slouching slightly and wanted to sit back down. But I knew I couldn't. I put one foot in front of the other. Step by step I made my way towards the nothingness that was in front of me.
My bare feet on what seemed to be concrete were, cold. Again, it felt real, yet at the same time fake. Maybe I can sleep walk and am just now finding it out. That couldn't be the case. I continued forward. The area around me began to light up just a little bit. I was far into what seemed to be complete and utter darkness, yet was somehow there was light. Even if it was dim, there was light.

I heard something. It sounded like feet hitting the ground. I stopped to make sure that those sounds were not my own feet hitting the concrete. The sounds continued, and the longer they went on for, the louder they got. I was terrified. I think I was more scared of not knowing who or what it is. The sound got closer, and even with the dim light, I couldn't see it. I thought it could see me even though I couldn't see it. It approached me and I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Where are we?” That's what I heard. I heard a soft gentle voice. The hand was still placed over my shoulder. “This is a dream, right? And if it is, then none of this is real. So if this is a dream, answer me and tell me.” Again in the same voice. “Where are we?”
I looked in the direction the voice came from. I couldn’t help staring.  A girl who seemed to be about my age, stood next to me. As soon as I came to that conclusion, the area brightened yet again.
She was taller than I was by about two inches making her 5 feet 10 inches. Her nose was set perfectly in the center of her face. With black hair, and light brown eyes, along with small and thin lips, there was no doubt about it, she was beautiful. I could only ponder in confusion. “I don't know.” The words didn't flow from my mouth, yet they were forced. “I wish I could tell you. But I honestly have no clue.”  She made eye contact with me.
“So is this place real? Or is it, again, just a dream?” She looked in all directions. “One way, the dream, we could try to make it a Lucid Dream, on the other hand, if we can’t, then it becomes almost a reality.”  She looked back down at me “Let's just say this is real for now.”
“In that case we should stay together. We can't just stay here and wait to be rescued.” I said, but I didn’t have to force the words this time. They flowed through me. “We need to move. But in what direction?”
“Which way did you come from?” I looked behind me then looked back at her. I didn’t say anything and she seemed to understand. “We stay going in the direction you were going, at least if we bump into a wall, we can follow it until there is a doorway of some sort.
“I can’t argue with that.” We took off in the direction I was going.

“You know, I never got your name. My name is Cassie.” I thought for a minute. They say in dreams, the faces you see are faces you have seen somewhere in life. I thought long and hard, have I ever seen her before? I know almost for a fact that I haven’t actually met someone named Cassie. I have only heard the name. But to pair an unfamiliar name, with in unfamiliar face wasn’t as easy to comprehend as a dream.
“My name is Will. Nice to properly meet you. So Cassie, where are you from?”  I asked expecting some crazy answer. Something like ‘I’m not from anywhere, only your imagination,’ Or ‘Have you heard of a place called Neverland? Thats where I’m from.’ Or even something like ‘I have lived in a place called Narnia for a while’, but that wasn't what I heard. I heard a normal answer.
“I'm from San Diego, California, you?” Again, I was not expecting an answer like that. I just stood shocked. I answered.
“I’m from Dayton, Ohio.” Her expression made it seem she was just as surprised as I was.
“I was expecting something crazy. I mean this is a dream, isn't it? This is all just a big nightmare. A nightmare that has no meaning. Something that seems never ending, yet I just know it will end.”  As she said that, I saw a brighter light than what was around us. I just ignored what she said and took off running towards the light It looked like it came from an open doorway off in the distance. So far away, but I knew it was there. But why was I so compelled by the light? Maybe because there is a chance that it leads out of this place.  I’m not sure if she felt the same way, but when I took off she ran towards it shortly after.  We ran side by side, panting harder and harder as we ran, almost tripping over each other. It felt like forever. The light kept growing brighter and brighter, yet it felt like I couldn't get any closer.  The doorway didn't get any bigger.
We heard voices, and the closer we got the louder. The voices consisted of at least one female and two male. 3 voices. That made me run faster. The hope of more people, it was more emotional than I thought it would be. That gave me the reason to run harder and faster. Cassie slowly fell behind me, either I was running faster than I was before, or she was slowing down. I reached what seemed to be the doorway the light was coming from.
I burst through the doorway into an open meadow. I thought it was crazy. I could have sworn we were just under ground. I was running so fast I ran right into something. No, more like someone.Make that three someones. I turned around to look at where i had come from. There was nothing. A few trees, the sky, and maybe the sound of a few animals. Cassie was behind me.
After what seemed to be an eternity, even tho I know it was just a few hours, I found more people. People that proved I wasn’t alone. People that will help me figure this whole mess out. People who might be experiencing the same thing. That is, if they were actually people and not part of my subconscious.
I hugged all 4 of the people, 3 new people and Cassie. I didn’t care who they were, I just cared that there was somebody. My mind raced and all I could think was how scared, yet how happy I was all at the same time. I held onto Cassie for the longest. I do understand that she hugged me back, and I hadn't realized how long I hugged her for until she let go of me. This is when I found something out about myself. Or I might have, I think I should wait before I make that conclusion.
The other the people were what I thought they were, two males, and one female. The girl was shorter than I was, she was about 5 feet 2 inches tall. Blond hair, light blue eyes, and had a slim body. The first boy was obviously the tallest at about 6 feet tall. He was not only the tallest, but the biggest. He had a powerful upper body build, and lower body as well. He was well defined, unlike me. I was only about 145 lbs while he might have been a little over 210. The second male was a little more like me. Black eyes along with black hair, matched with glasses and was about Cassie’s height. Only he was slimmer than I was. He seemed sophisticated at first sight. I though that might come in handy.
They all just stared at me. I couldn't tell if it was because two strangers just mystically appeared in front of them, quite literally out of nowhere it seemed, or the fact that the same random stranger decided to hug all of them.
“Can you just not do that?”  The girl said. “I’m just not comfortable with that  touchy feely stuff.”  She looked at me with disgust. I think I found out who was shocked at the hug.
“Sorry, I was just…” I couldn't finish the sentence. We all started at each other for a minute in silence.
“Where the hell did you just come from?!” The tall one was absolutely stunned.
“I….Don't know.”  I looked over at him, well, more like I had to look up at him.
“Where are we?” The tallest one asked, tossing aside the other question. “Does anyone have even the slightest idea? I don't know why, but it feels real, yet unreal all at the same time. More like a dream. The last thing I remember was a bright light in my dream.” Nobody seemed to have judged him. I understood all of it and the look the others gave seemed to have the same expression.
“So it seems we have all had the same experience?” The slim male said. HIs voice was low and quite.
“It seems so” There was silence that hung in the air like a guillotine. “So what do we do. We were in a dark room, and every time something happened, the room lite up just a little bit more.Like we ran into someone of something became a relization. I don't know about you, but I noticed the gradual change.” Cassie said.
“Don’t worry, I have noticed it too. I understand where you are coming from. But I still don’t get any of it, why and how,. Who and where. ” Said the other girl.
“What’s everyone’s name?  I go by Cassie” Another brief moment of silence.
The first to respond was the other girl. “My name is Charlotte” The next to respond was the Slim guy.
“My name is James.” His voice was full of confidence.
“My name is Thomas.” Thomas was the tall, built one. I was the last to answer. I felt pressured. All eyes on me waiting for a response. Cassie stepped in for me.
“His name is Will.”
“Wow, the boy who’s not afraid to give random strangers hugs can’t tell them his name. Who would have thought?” The rude remarks came from Charlotte. I couldn’t do anything but stare downwards at the ground in disappointment.  There was a wind that blew through the meadow. Against my skin it felt soft, gentle and warm. Soft almost like a cloud. It felt thicker than regular wind would. Heavy almost. Almost even solid
“So this place is real.” Said James. Charlotte had a surprised yet confused facial expression.
“But it feels… It feels different. This is wind, no doubt about it. But something is off. The feeling on my skin feels like I am laying in soft grass rather than wind. Well, the grass itself and no ground beneath it. The frailness of the grass brushing against your body, that's how it feels. But the feeling is not as hard as grass, it's much, much softer. Maybe a cloud.” I was trying to form my thoughts into words.
“So this has to be a dream. I have this gut feeling that's it's real, but logic points towards it being fake. Wind shouldn’t feel like this. Or smell like this for that matter.” Said James. There was a faint sweetness in the air, almost like honey and flowers. The smell of grass and freshly cut wood.That wasn’t all that was there, there was something else, a smell of something I have never smelled before.  Aromatherapeutic.
“If it is a dream, then we all think we are in our own dream. We all believe that the others around us are part of our imagination. So why would we all have independent consciousness and personality? Are we actually in our own dream, or are we part of something bigger. Someone else's dream, or even this could be the space in between dreams. Thats why its empty, so open.” I said that with more of a passion than I should have. I got really excited.
“I think you might be thinking too hard about all this. For now, this is just a random place. And even in dreams people can have independent councioses. I don’t think you really know how dreams work.” Said James. “Let's just try to find some food, water, and shelter. Take our mind off the rest of this nonsense ”
“Look, we might be able to get out of here. Don’t go on blabbing and acting all tough and cool. We don’t know if we are really far from somewhere, or really close.” Charlotte was obviously scared or worried, but she said that with a stern voice. “But I don't think we are that far. We have to be close.”
“What if we are nowhere near civilization, what if we were out here on some deserted island.  Where no one can find us. Don’t forget that no one will come for us because we are in a place that most likely doesn't exist.” James made a fair argument.
“So what!” Charlotte seemed like she was going to cry. “I don’t think we can get hurt if it is a dream!” She yelled through shaky voice. All of a sudden, it seemed like reality hit her, and it was not a friendly nudge on the shoulder.
“The geek here makes a good point. And even if this isn’t real, I think we should do what we can to survive.” Thomas stated. “And besides, what if it is real. Do we still feel hunger, or thirst? That’s the question. We need to see if any of this is real by testing some stuff.”
“Did you just call me a geek? You're the one who came up with the idea to do tests before I could. But I get where you're coming from.” He placed his hand on his chin to think. “Does anyone feel hungry, or even thirsty? Or maybe even tired?” James looked around. I was the first to respond.
“I feel tired. Not sure if that has much to do with that. I’m thirsty too, but it's not bad.” I looked around to see if anyone had a response or at least agreed with me. Cassie looked like she could sympathize with me.So did Charlotte, but that could just be becuase we have been here a few hours. “I can, tell just by looking around that some of what we were feeling are the normal human needs. Another thing, and don't be embarrassed, does anyone have to go to the bathroom?”
“I don’t see why anyone would be, but I know I don’t have to.” James looked around at everyone else. “So that’s a no then. Nobody.” There was another pause. “So then we look for food, water, and somewhere to sleep for the night. Then in the morning, we can see if we can find our way around and maybe find a road, or even a vantage point.” James explained. “After that, we can decide what to do from there.” No one seemed to disagree.
“Lets adventure out, but we will stay together.” Cassie exclaimed with what seemed to be a sense of confidence.

We headed off in the direction the mountains. The bright blue sky stayed the same bright blue shade it was. It didn’t seem to dim overhead. Which means, that it was early in the day when we found our way out of the room/building, whatever it was. I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around that. I think I would be better off it I just let that go.
The meadow slowly became a forest, and the forest, became a jungle. The trees became thick and surrounded us. Vines and branches hung down from the trees as the ground sprouted with wildflowers and grasses.  The movement of the birds above us,  as mice and rats ran across the surface along with some other small creatures. Everywhere I looked, I saw a something being eaten by something else that was bigger than it. Bugs being eaten by birds, mice being eaten by the owls, spiders and their prey were in every other tree. It came to the point where Thomas had a stick that he was waving around like a sword trying to get rid of all the webs in front of us.
I was lost in thought while everyone else was trying to decide where to go. I’m not sure why I am here. I’m not sure why I am paired with these four. There has to be a reason. Right? Maybe...No… I continued to let my thoughts wander.
“Hey, there is a small creek here!” Thomas yelled from ahead. “Should we follow it?” He asked as he took a sip of some of it. “So first thing first. I feel thirst, and this water tastes like normal water. Except with a hint of the wild in it.”
“You know that the water’s not safe, right? That could make you sick really quick.” James said right after Thomas downed another gulp of water. “I really hope nothing was wrong with it…”
“So what, to me, water is water. It can’t possible be bad for you.”
“That’s just your opinion, do you really want diarrhea for a few days?” James crossed his arms and looked down at Thomas as he said that.
“No…” Thomas said that and stopped trying to drink the water. He seemed disappointed, and Charlotte giggled a little bit.
“Good, because I don't want have to take care of you.” He gestured back to the rest of us, “And I don't think they do either.”  I nodded my head as if to say I do not want to take care of someone I hardly knew. I only would because I have a feeling I might need to later.
“I say we follow the stream. If we can get to the end, there is some sort of build up. The wildlife always tend to be near it. So, we can get an abundance of food.” Thomas said.
“There is one problem with that idea, Einstein. We don't have a weapon to hunt them with.” Charlotte explained with annoyance. Thomas’s face dropped. “What were you planning to do? Kill them with an invisible gun?” She snickered and laughed a bit. We all couldn’t help ourselves. Everyone was laughing except for Thomas who was just outraged about it.
“Do you have a plan little miss ‘I know everything!” He yelled in anger. “So what do we do! We can sit here and starve if you’d like! I don't know about you, but I’m gonna try to catch them with my bare hands if I have to.”
“Sorry, but at least I have some common sense!” She yelled back at him. Things were getting heated. I let them yell at eachother while I  snuck off.
I got a head start on the creek and tried to think of some ways to kill something. The trickling sound of the water from the creek calmed my nerves.  Even if all I could get was a rabbit, that would be ok. I really wish I had a bow and arrow, or a spear, even if it was made of wood. Something like that would be helpful to all of us. This would be so much easier. I continued following the creek thinking of ways to hunt something. Maybe I could use a rock and throw it at something. Crush it and smash its head in. It would be difficult not to destroy the rest of the body. The part we could actually eat.

After about half an hour, I had finally made my way to the lake. The lake was in the middle of the jungle, where it had thinned out and became a meadow again. the lake was vast with a nice blue shimmer. The reflection of the trees over the water was amazing. The mountains were in the background, peeking over the jungle and the birds flew in front of the mountains making the view that much more enjoyable. A rabbit jumped across the meadow, as a fawn moved about. It was obvious it was still learning to walk. It had fallen over a few times and then gotten back up.
The thought is terrible. Killing something as hopeless as a baby dear. I...But…. we need it. I picked up the biggest rock I could and walked over to it. The fawn looked at me and made a barking kind of sound. It was hard to do, but I knew I had to. I thought to myself this would be the easiest way to get all of us dinner. To get Cassie some food, along with Thomas and James, and I didn’t forget about Charlotte. I picked the rock up above my head. I was ready to throw it down on it’s head.
“Will! Will! What are you doing?” It was Cassie. “Will! You don't need to do that! Stop it!” She screamed. I dropped the rock behind my head and onto the ground. I fell on my knees staring at the dear and I began to cry. I couldn't help myself. I cried uncontrollably on my knees and continued to stare at the defenceless creature in front of me. I cried harder. Soon, Cassie was wrapped around me hugging me from behind. “You didn’t need to do that. You shouldn't have to do that. Please don't do something like that.” Her voice was shaky as a few tears left from her face.
“Thank you.” That’s all I could get out of my mouth right then. I turned around and hugged her back. And apparently we ended up wiping the tears from each other’s sleeves.
“You know, you two would make a great couple.” Charlotte giggled as she walked out of the trees with James and Thomas close behind. That made Cassie and I jump. We stood up and wiped the tears from our eyes and avoided eye contact with each other. Charlotte turned to Thomas. “See, don’t you think?”
“They really do, it looks like they get along well, they seem really comfortable around each other.” Thomas had a smile on his face as he said it. “So, should we leave you two some privacy?” He joked some more.
“Hey! Were not like that at all!” I yelled. “I mean, we hardly know each other and…”
“And what?” I swear sometimes, Charlotte was pure evil, I hardly knew her, so for all I knew she could be a spawn of Satan. But I'm probably just over exaggerating.
“And...And...Well that doesn't matter right now!” She must have seen me blush a little bit and laughed about it. So did Thomas and James. “So, what should we do for food then? I don’t think we will be eating this baby dear today…” My eyes meet with the fawn. I closed my eyes for a moment and laid down. The deer got back up and stumbled away.
“I found some edible berries in the jungle. I thought we could eat enough to hold off for another day or two. It wouldn't be too hard to find some roots we can eat as well.” I started to believe he was a true nerd/geek. James was smart and reliable apparently. It would definitely be good to have him around. “The water here wouldn't be too difficult to filter either. If we took the leaves of the trees, rubbed them on a rock to the point where they are really thin, but still intact. After that we place them over each other and they will hold better, but let the water pass and not all the rest of the crap.  We could at least filter some of the crap out of it that there could be.”
“James, I am really glad you’re one of the people were trapped with.” Thomas sounded just as grateful about it as everyone else.
We went back through the Jungle where James had found the berries. The bright blue berries were about a ten minute walk from where we were at the lake. We gathered them with our shirts trying to hold as many as we could. We picked the bush clean. There were a few left that we decided wouldn't be worth the effort. Thomas ate a good amount of his batch right off the bush. They were tart and sweet with a hint of leaves. It was easy to decipher them from the kind you find at a grocery store. They were definitely had a wild-like taste to them. The juicy liquids that came from the berries were sticky, like any other berry, but not insanely sticky. I was half tempted to eat them as fast as I could, but I wanted to wait until we got back to what we decided would be base camp.

The sun was setting, it was already low. The wind coming off the lake was colder than we had anticipated. The temperature was dropping rapidly as well.
“We should find something we can sleep under.” I was hoping someone had an idea.
“Well, there is a big rock over there” Charlotte pointed towards a large round rock. “We could pick it up and sleep under a rock.” She couldn't help but laugh about it before she even finished the sentence. We all laughed a little bit.
“Seriously, we have about 10 minutes of daylight left.  We can't just be out in the open.  For one, we don’t know what could be out here. What kind of predators and stuff like that.” James looked at me and nodded with agreement.
“Will is right about this, we need to do something. We could go over by the cliff that is right next to the water, that would protect our backs, but on the other hand, it would be really cold. If we pulled up some of the tall grass and laid it over us, we could help keep ourselves warm. We would also have to sleep all together to provide some extra warmth.”
“Look at that, James the survivalist.” Thomas said jokingly. But it didn't seem to go over well with James, who looked a little mad about it. I would personally take that as a compliment.
“Now that we have somewhere to sleep, what are we going to do about the animals around here?” We all looked at James hoping for more of his survival strategies after I said that.
“We could take shifts, two people would be up as the other three sleep. We would look out for about an hour, then one person would switch spots with another. So every half hour there was a new person with the old one who was on watch. And before you ask ‘How will we defend ourselves?’ We take some larger branches, and sharpen the ends of them on a rock. Giving it a point to, at least wound the predator.” No one seemed to argue with that, so that's what we did. We found some branches and sharpened two of them. 
“Should we have a fire going to help keep us warm throughout the night?” Cassie asked.
“It's not a bad idea, but that would be harder than you think. But give me a minute, go collect some dead grass, twigs, and some wood that will burn for a while.” We built a firepit by making a circle with rocks and pulling up the grass around it. The plan was to use that grass for kindling. 
After Thomas and Charlotte came back with the wood, James made a little TeePee with all of it. He picked up two rocks, rubbed them together for a while, then hit them against each other over the TeePee that he had. Sparks flew and the pit was smoking just a bit. He did it three more times before he had a flame. He managed to get the little fire into a bigger fire. It wasn't as big as we would like it, but it was something, for a last minute creation.
Thomas and Charlotte volunteered for first watch with our makeshift spears. Thomas would be up for another hour and a half just to make the shifts work. After Charlotte, was James, and once Thomas’s time was up, it would be me, then Cassie, then we would restart the shifts. Whoever had last shift was allowed to sleep in a little bit in the morning. Not only watching out for possible threats, but keeping the fire going was also their job. 
We sat around the fire discussing the plans for the night, and what we should do for tomorrow.
“Now that we have a plan for the nights, what should we do during the day?”  Thomas looked gloomy about it. It was obvious that we were all homesick. Even after one day, we learned to trust each other. It was hard to avoid the topic.
“Right now, I say we just rest. It was a weird day after all. And a long one. Let's just try to get some sleep and take this step by step. In the morning we can look for a road if everyone would like” Everyone seemed to agree with me. There were no objections. 
I layed down just to realize how tired I really was. The ground was hard, uneven, and a little painful to sleep on, but at that moment, I was so tired, I didn't care all that much.  I didn't dream, I just slept. I slept until Thomas woke me up for my shift. Even if it was just a little bit of sleep, it was fulfilling.
James and I were on watch as the others slept.
“I know this is a little late, but thank you for everything you have done. You might not think all that much about it, but you are doing more than enough for everyone. Im grateful for everything that you have done. This really has been a crazy day. I learned I have feelings for a stranger, and made new friends if you can even count this. We still don’t know it's real, but at the same time we don’t know if it's fake either.” I knew it wasn’t the best time for these words to be coming out of my mouth, but they were, and they kept coming. “I miss my house, an unexpected survival trip was not what I was expecting. I know that sounded stupid, but, I really do like all of you. One day is all it took to earn my trust.” I looked downwards trying to avoid eye contact.
“You make me blush. I wasn't expecting any of this, and I too, have come to trust you all.  It really only does take one day, and you're all knitted together. I still feel like the outcast. You say I am helpful, but I don't think the little things do that much. The little bit of food, how we can lower our risk of getting sick from the water, the fire. It doesn't mean all that much.”  His voice was sorrow.
“Don’t say that about yourself. You have most likely saved all of us. That nerd thing you got going for you, it helps, and more than I can express with words. You all have your talents, yours helped out today, and who knows for how long it will, but your words, your actions, thoughts, ideas. All of them, they meant something, they were powerful, they were useful. So don’t beat yourself up for doing something good.”
“Thanks, I’m not all that used to having friends. All this is different than what I have been through. I was never liked, people always ignored me, told me I’m not worth the effort. I’m always the outcast.” He sobbed a little bit. I got up, sat down next to him and put my arm around him to help cheer him up.
“We all have our struggles, some more than others. I can tell you have had several problems in life so far. If we get out of this world, I will try to spend some time with you, that’s a promise. I hate it when people have to deal with complete and utter idiots, people who don't know what feelings are, people who don't have common sense. I don’t want you to suffer anymore than you have too” My arm was still wrapped around him. He was trying hard not to cry, but the tears fell silently from his face.
“Thank you, I can’t say how much this means to me. I...I…” He continues to cry.
“Just get some rest for tonight. We need you tomorrow.” He looked up at me with tears flowing at a pretty constant pace. He gave me a hug, walked over by the fire and laid down. 
I waited a few minutes for him to fall asleep. I wanted Cassie to get a little more sleep. I had the branch in one hand as I sat on top of the grass. I looked up at the star lit sky. The stars were very prominent. It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I could see them more clearly here, than I ever had before. I could see the Little Dipper, the Big Dipper, the North star. The occasional shooting star was nice to watch too. I didn't realize that Cassie had woken up and crawled up next to me.
“Its beautiful. Isn't it?” Cassie whispered and scared the crap out of me. I jumped up with the sharpened branch and almost hit her on the side of the head with it. “Whoa, watch what you're protecting us from. I hope I’m not a big bad monster.” She said jokingly
“Sorry, you just scared me, and not just a little bit.” She laughed a bit.
“Crazy day huh? One thing lead to another, and things just got a little out of hand. At least nothing too bad happened. No one is hurt, we all ate something, and we have some water.” She looked over at me, looking away from the stars in the sky. “We made some friends, we learned to trust one another.”
“I have to agree with you there, nothing went too bad, besides me trying to kill a baby deer. Other than that, I made some new friends, got to visit and even stay the night somewhere I have never even dreamed of visiting, quite literally too.” She threw her shoulder into mine playfully as I met her gaze. Her face turned red.
“I heard what you said to James…” Her voice was low, almost a whisper. Like she wanted me to hear it, but at the same time, she didn't want me to. “I just wanted to give you a minute to think for a little bit before I said anything. You're a sweet guy. Most people wouldn't say any of that.” Her face grew to a bright red, obviously embarrassed, “I was up the whole time you were talking to him.” There was a pause, I could feel my own face glowing red.  ”Everything about learning to trust everyone, and…” Another pause. “About feelings for a total stranger.”  My face turned bright red and I was embarrassed.
“I...I meant what I said…” My eyes failed to meet hers. “I...I don't know what to say” She looked away, as did I. I stood up from the grass. I had to stand up, I couldn't sit still after that. 
“Wait!” I looked down at her still sitting on the ground. “I...I...I like you a little bit too.” She had a large amount of trouble saying that. She has courage, more than I have. I couldn’t have said that to her. “I…” Silence fell about.
“I don’t know what to say..” My body tensed up, and relaxed at the same time. I didn't know what to do, or say. I sat back down right next to her. More silence. “I want to spend more time with you, to learn more about you.” My face was bright red.
We were jerked back into reality when we heard rustling in the tall grass. I picked up my makeshift spear  and stood up faster that I should have. The sound shocked Cassie too. She picked up the other spear. “Whatever it was, it's still here.” We could hear it moving around us. We were back to back ready to fight whatever the thing is. It let off a bellow, and there was more than one.
The other three woke up in shock. They grabbed some wood and lit the ends of them on fire. The fire that wasn't that bright. It's not likely they could have done too much. I had forgotten to put more wood on it.
The three of them ran to our position. The beasts let off a screech. A giant panther like creature pounced on Thomas, and another one on Charlotte. I don’t know what came over me. I took the branch/spear and swung it as hard as I could knocking the one of Charlotte. Thomas managed to push the one on him off. I took the spear and impaled the panther that attacked Charlotte with all my might. I couldn't pull it back out. Cassie still stood in shock. I ran over to her as another one was ready to pounce. It jumped up only to be met in mid jump with a spear. I had left the spear in the other one, and took Cassie’s as she stood still. The spear when through the panther breaking the branch in half. I still held the other piece. Thomas and James were trying to fend of the third and final panther. I ran over with my broken stick and jumped on it’s back and stabbed it with the broken end making it howl in agony and pain. I wasn't sure if I had killed them. They were all still whimpering. Thomas walked over to the one with a spear sticking out of it and pulled the branch out. He killed it when he thrusted it into its head. He did the same with the other two just to make sure they were dead.
I was covered in blood from the beast. My hands were splintered. I looked around to see what I just did. Three dead, what seemed to be panthers, and none others were around. I was in complete shock. I fell to my knees only to see Charlotte lying on the ground with her shirt torn into shreds, tainted with her own blood. I tried to get up to help her. I got up on one foot, fell over, and hit my head hard on the cold ground. I was hardly conscious. Cassie rushed to me, Thomas helped Charlotte get up as she was still recovering from her wounds and shock. My vision faded, Cassie was yelling at me trying to keep me awake. I couldn't quite make out what it was, but she sat down next to me and laid my head in her lap trying to keep me from losing consciousness. She failed, everything went black.

I woke up to an arm wrapped around me. It was Cassie’s arm. She had fallen asleep next to me most likely trying to wake me up. My head was spinning, I tried to make sense of what had happened last night. I still couldn’t believe I did all that, I killed 3 panthers...3 of them. There was no way I did that. It couldn't be possible. I tried to sit up without disturbing Cassie. I moved her arm and started to sit up.  My head throbbed and I laid back down. It sent a wave of pain through my head and body. Maybe I have been thinking too hard about all this. No, what happened last night did this. Too much adrenalin was released into by body at once. That's why my head hurts. I know that's probably not right, but leaning on something is better than nothing.  I looked over at Cassie to see she was still asleep. I tried to get up again, this time I was prepared for the pain. I managed myself. I looked around to see Thomas and James talking, and Charlotte was trying not to hurt herself more. Her shirt was still torn and her back was covered in blood. She was trying to wash some of it off in the lake.
I tried to get up fully and realized my hands were all torn up from the tree branch. They were swollen and filled with splinters. Thomas must have heard me and turned around.
“Looks like the hero of the night has awakened.” I looked at him with half a smile as I sat up. “Dude, how did you do that last night? That was awesome! You were so fast. You didn’t even hesitate!”
“To be honest, I have no clue what came over me. I just….I just kind of did it. No problems whatsoever. I ignored the pain and fought. Actually, I didn't feel any pain. I can’t explain it, but I did it. And I did it without hesitating.” My mind was still a little boggled.
“That doesn't make all that much sense, but ok. But dude, your fast. There is no doubt about that. Not only did you save Charlotte, but me and James, and Cassie. James saved us once, this time you did.” James looked over and smiled.
“Not only did you save us, but know we are all in you debt. We owe you.” James walked over to me and extended his arm to pick me up.
“James, no. None of you owe me anything. Don't think too much of that. I was just protecting my new friends. I don't want anything to happen to you guys. I know it's hardly even been a full 24 hours, if it has been, but I want to hold on to those of you who are here. The 4 of you mean more to me right now then almost anything else.”  I looked up and pushed his hand aside with my forearm. I showed him my hands. “The only reason I’m not taking you hand is because my hands are a little screwed up.” He pulled his hand back.
“Hey, that looks so much better than it did last night.” James looked up at Thomas. “Looks like Cassie really knew what she was talking about last night.”  I was a little confused and I guess he saw that. “Oh, Cassie pulled a bunch of the splinters out of your hand and did a few other things. She also made sure you weren’t concussed. She said you were going to be ok, but you needed to take it easy for a few days.”
“I guess when she gets up I have to thank her.” I looked down at her sleeping. Apparently I stared too long, Thomas looked at me and I could tell what he was thinking, that I liked her.  “Then what do we do. If I’m supposed to take it easy for a while, I shouldn’t go too far, and like we agreed earlier, we need to stick together.”
“That's true,so we should stay close to this area. The cliff behind us should be a decent vantage point to see what's going on. I say two of us climb the mountain to see what we can find. After that, we should de what we can just to stay alive.”  James wasn't to concerned.  “And for food, there might still be some panther that we could eat. If we cooked it thoroughly we should be ok.”  Thomas was immediately in on trying the panther.
“One thing, who can cook?” I looked up as Thomas asked the question. “I know I can’t, and over an open flame like this, I could probably burn this place down.” The three of us pondered and stayed quite. It was obvious none of us could cook. I took a quick glance down to see if Cassie was still asleep, she was. I was half tempted to call out to Charlotte over by the lake, but I didn’t want to wake Cassie.
“When Casse wakes up we can ask her, and we could always ask Charlotte. But let's not call out to her to get her to come over here so we can let the one next to me sleep.”  Cassie rolled over and faced me, still asleep.
“True, who knows how late she was up until trying to help you.  To bad we don't know how to really tell time here. That would be helpful for all of us. I mean, we could always make a sundial. But it's been so long since I used one, and we don't really know where we are, it wouldn’t be very accurate.  We could just to get an idea of the time.”  Thomas’s expression became excited. He stood up quickly.
“I might be able to help with that. I don't have any tools, but I’m really good with my hands, I could try to build one. Again, the no tools thing….Rocks and grass and sticks are all I really have.”  He sat back down. James and I locked eyes for a moment then both turned back at Thomas.
“That's not a bad idea, James here could help you get it right, make sure it's made correctly. You two go and get started on that. When Charlotte comes back I can ask her if she can cook, I will do the same when Cassie wakes up.”
“First we need to find some rocks that are shaped a little differently, like a triangle.  We can try to dig a hole for it so it sits up straight. And if we need to manage the shape of it, we can use some other rocks to grind away at it and shape it the way we need it. After that, we should mark the ground so we can tell the time from the shadow.’
“Sure,” Thomas stood up and picked up James did. “Let’s go James, we have a goal for today.” I watched them walk away and go into the woods to gather what they needed. I was hoping that they would be able to find some other materials that we could use.  Anything would be nice. Some berries again, roots, anything really. Some edible leaves.
My stomach grumbled. Damn, I’m hungry. Maybe last night just drained me that much.  I still can’t believe I did that. Maybe I am some secret warrior or something like that.
My thoughts were cut off short when I heard Cassie grumble a little in her sleep. I couldn't tell what it was.  I couldn’t help it, I just sat there and watched her sleep for a while.  To me she looked beautiful. The sun reflected off her black hair making it shine. It made her seem even more beautiful. I knew I couldn't keep staring at her.  I quickly looked away.  I saw Charlotte walking up from the lake. She don't have much blood on her, the only blood left was on her clothes.
“Feel any better?” I asked. She glared at me. I don't think she was very happy with anything at the moment.
“Well, I’m not completely covered in blood. It’s just on my clothes.”  She seemed annoyed with me.
“Are you doing okay, I mean, that has to hurt. It even looks like it hurts really bad. We should do something about that. It’s possible that that will get infected, and out here, I doubt we will be able to get ahold of any anti-biotics.”  She stayed quiet.  “So I think we should both rest for a few days. I know I have to. So sit down and….”
She cut me off. She pretty much jumped at me, hugging me. “You saved my life.” She said. “Thank you.”  She stood back up and winced.  “Don’t worry about me. I should be worried about you. You’re the one who risked his own life. And even if this is a dream, I can still feel pain. I feel all of it. I want to go home, I don't like this place all this much. And….and knowing I almost died after one day….That doesn’t make me feel very good.  It scares me.” The was a moment of silence. “I’m not resting until we get home, I’m not going to quit until this is all over.”
“Listen to me for a moment, and I know this might be something you have heard before, and this might sound a little cliche, but you can’t do anything, unless you are in good shape. You won't be able to help if you need help, if you can’t do anything for yourself, you won't be able to help all that much.  So please, just sit down and let's think rationally about this.”  I tried to be as calm as possible, however I still raised my voice a little. I was being sincere, and I hope she saw that.
She raised her voice, “I don’t think you get it! I don't want to be here, and I’m going to do everything to leave.” Her voice grew shaky. “I don't want to be here!” she yelled. “I don't like this place at all. I just want to go home.” Her voice trailed off and she dropped to her knees weeping. I didn’t know what to do. I sat next to her and wrapped my arm around her. She turned to face me and buried her face in my chest as she kept crying. I put my other arm around her. The yelling and crying must have woken Cassie up.
She slowly moved over to us and put her hand down on Charlotte's shoulder, the same way she did to me in the darkness.  Something about that gesture was calming. It calmed me down yesterday, and it seems to be doing the same thing today. “Charlotte,” she said, “It’s okay to be scared, it’s ok to be afraid. We all have our fears, but that's part of being alive."